What you all are missing about Google — I'm surprised that even Kara Swisher has missed this. The bloggers are going nuts, once again, over the email that a Google lawyer sent to Microsoft regarding Microsoft's proposed purchase of Yahoo. — Here's what's really going on:

Google Reaches Out to Yahoo — Google CEO Eric Schmidt offered Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang help in any effort to thwart Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion bid. Though regulatory concerns make a bid by Google unlikely, it could play a role in bids by others.

Announcing the RTM of Windows Vista SP1 — Hi, Mike Nash here from the Windows Product Management group at Microsoft. Today we are excited to announce that we have released Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista to manufacturing (RTM) for our first set of languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese).

Rumor: New MacBook Pros on the way? — With Apple's MacBook Air having reached store shelves, it might not be too much longer before the company updates the rest of its notebook lineup. — MacRumors notes fresh evidence—of sorts—that Apple is getting ready to launch revamped MacBook Pros in February.

Is Google's Social Graph API a Creeping Privacy Violation? — I love me some screenscaping and mashups and data portability, but when it comes to personal information things get a little more complicated. — I'm in San Francisco today at Dappercamp, an event concerning a tool that's always got …

Google: Like A Rock (That Is, Falling Like One) — Google has thus far today dropped another 5% of its stock price to drop below the $500 mark for the first time since last August. Remember, up until the final days in December the stock was still over $700 a share, and it was near the $750 a share level …

Microsoft wants to bring Surface home sooner — When people get a chance to try out Microsoft's Surface touch-screen tabletop computer, they often wish they could take one home. — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Monday that the company is trying to speed up that process after getting a lot of demand for a consumer version.

Yahoo axes music service, strikes deal with Rhapsody — It's been a tumultuous few days for Yahoo—you know, with that takeover bid from Microsoft—but the company continues to shake things up internally, too. — On Monday, the company announced that it will discontinue …

Who cut the cables? — Curiouser and curiouser. Last Wednesday two undersea communication cables carrying Internet traffic were severed near Alexandria, Egypt, causing widespread outages in Egypt and India that left a reported 100 million people without Net access.

Heard the Latest About Podcasting? — Engagement via headphones. — Ever since podcasting was introduced, the question has been the same: Will anyone listen? — The answer is definitely “Yes.” — eMarketer estimates that the total US podcast audience reached 18.5 million in 2007.

Yang e-mail reaches out to Yahoo employees — Wonder what Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang and the company's nonexecutive chairman, Roy Bostock, said to the troops on Friday, after Microsoft launched its unsolicited $44.6 billion bid? — Here's the text of the e-mail they sent to employees …

CFO: Microsoft likely to go into debt for Yahoo deal — Microsoft has historically been renowned for its huge cash holdings, and its ability to avoid going into debt, but the company will probably need to borrow for the first time to help cover the cash portion of its giant Yahoo bid.